Culiverter

Culiverter

Tuesday, 7 October 2008

I'm back! Kittie is officially now in a different kitchen... and just about recovered from the trauma of moving...

What a week. In the space of seven days...

I've packed up my wee flat and moved into a proper house!

I've left the cats with their new owner - happy to report things seem to be going well so far!

Three of my good friends have left the country - two to South America, and one to Turkey... have a wonderful time guys, missing you already.

My work contract has come to an end - back to the bench for me...

My best friend has booked her tickets for a six month traveling expedition - exciting!!

... and last, but by no means least, one of my best friends has just got married - congratulations, M&M!

So. After all the upheaval, bustle and rush, there is nothing like a huge steaming bowl of broth to sooth and comfort; make the world all seem just a little bit more normal. A soup that's seen me through sore throats and winter days, a student staple and a Christmas treat...

Lentil and Ham Hock Soup

Serves 10-12, depending on the bowl!

1 ham hock, preferably smoked

2 large onions, roughly chopped

3 medium carrots, roughly chopped

1 carrot, for the stock

1 celery for the stock

2 cloves garlic (optional) Left whole, but bashed a bit

2 cups red lentils, washed

3 sticks celery, roughly chopped

6 black pepper corns

2 bay leaves

1 clove

butter to fry

salt to taste

Prepare the Stock...Place the hock in a large soup pot. Add one onion, one carrot, one stick of celery and the garlic (if using). Add the bay leaves, peppercorns and clove, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for an hour and a half.

Strain the stock, reserving the hock, and discard the veg and spice.

Prepare the Base...

Heat some butter in your soup pot, then add the rest of the onion, celery and carrot. Fry until softened slightly, then pour in the stock. Stir in the lentils and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the lentils are cooked through. Check seasoning after about 10 minutes and adjust as required.

While the lentils are cooking, remove as much meat as you can from the hock, and chop into bite-sized pieces.

Finish the Soup...

Once the lentils are fully cooked, remove the soup from the heat and blitz to desired consistency. Add the hock meat pieces into the soup.

Serve!Serve your lentil broth with crusty bread, a grind of black pepper and a sigh of relief.

World Food Day is an event to raise awareness of the problem of hunger in the world and to bring to our attention what we can do about it personally. It is a day to encourage us and our governments to be well informed on the issues and to have a plan of action!!!

The event requires participants to make dishes that will feed at least 6 people...

We could then lay each dish back to back and have enough food to feed everyone on our street. If more people joined we could feed everyone in our city...our country...the world...you get the picture!!! A conga line of international dishes to feed the world!!!!

Hi Kittie and thanks for submitting a recipe for the WFD. I haven't been feeling well for a few days now and I am making a small effort to catch up with all the posts I've missed. Your dish sounds delicious.

Puggled is a most excellent word and I will make every effort to include it in my vocabulary. The soup looks soothing and satisfying. I should source out smoked ham hocks for fall/winter soup making. You have had a lot of change, take extra special care and pamper yourself.

This looks SO great Kittie, just perfect -tasty, healthy, warm and comforting...

Congrats on your move! Wow, your life really sounds like it is in quite the upheaval! But all for the best it sounds like too.

Okay, in reference to your comment on my blog on where I am, I'm a little confused. I didn't know if you meant where do I live because I wrote about the cultural things or where am I because I haven't posted for 4 days which is unusual -or did you mean something else entirely? I live in Australia and I am posting this morning, (night for me) despite being on holiday to a secret location of which I will tell soon enough... is that what you meant?

You've been a busy that's for sure. Congrats on your new kitchen!All these delicious lentil soups that I stumble upon these days make me wonder why I've never used lentil in soups before. Will have to remedy that soon :D

I actually have something that I think would be perfect for this soup - at Borough they were recently selling the very end bits of Parma hams that were not really sliceable - cheap, vac packed and ready to pop into your soup or lentil dish to infuse it with flavour. I think mine may just have found its destiny :)